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Objective

The focus of our attention is on
perception systems for mobile robots.
Our goal is
to advance
the theoretical and practical foundations
that allow mobile robots to operate in an unconstrained, dynamic environment.
The approaches
that we develop
address real-world needs
and are typically characterized by fusion of different sensor modalities.
Where possible,
the results of our research work
are timely integrated in industrial demonstrators.

Research Focus

Our research is organized along two major strands
in the areas of mobile robotics and artificial olfaction.

Mobile Robotics

Our research in Mobile Robotics is aimed at
autonomous and safe long-term operation in real world scenarios.
Industrial relevance and technology transfer
is facilitated through collaborative projects with industrial partners
in the area of professional service robots for autonomous transportation ("logistics robots").
In our collaborative projects we develop
robotic forklifts in warehouses,
robotic wheel loaders on asphalt production sites,
underground mining vehicles,
service robots in airports
and robotic systems to unload containers.
Key projects:
AIR,
Semantic Robots,
SPENCER,
RobLog (ended),
SAUNA (ended),
ALLO (ended),
SAVIE (ended),
ALL-4-eHAM (ended),
MALTA (ended).

Artificial and Mobile Robot Olfaction

Artificial Olfaction is the science of gas sensing with artificial sensor systems.
We study in particular open sampling systems
where the gas sensors are directly exposed to the environment.
Open sampling systems are opposed to common laboratory setups,
which use sophisticated sampling systems to keep parameters such as
air flow, temperature, humidity and concentration of the chemical compound
constant over a prolonged time.
For most real-world applications this is not possible.
We address the corresponding challenges and aim to further develop systems
known as "electronic nose" (e-nose)
towards a "mobile nose" (m-nose).
By combining artificial olfaction and mobile robotics
we study the foundations for Mobile Robot Olfaction.
Application domains of interest include gas sensor networks and mobile robots for surveillance of landfill sites, monitoring of air pollution and gas leak detection and localization.
Key projects:
SmokeBot,
Gasbot (ended),
Diadem (ended),
Dustbot (ended).

Research Themes

Our research can be described by three partially overlapping research themes.

In this theme we consider algorithms
to create a consistent world model
from 3D data
augmented with additional information (these additional dimensions can include for example colour, reflectivity, temperature, semantic information, confidence, patterns of motion, social behaviours).
In particular,
we address
fusion of visual and range information,
efficient representations,
6DOF scan registration,
change detection and
loop closing
in 3D and rich 3D data.
Examples are shown in the slide on the right.

Work in the Robot Vision theme concerns
appearance-based approaches to
localization,
topological mapping
and visual SLAM.
The basic modalities investigated are perspective and omni-directional cameras and 3D laser range-finders.
Examples are shown in the slide on the right.

This theme is concerned with different aspects of airborne chemical sensing with mobile robots and sensor networks in unconstrained environments.
In particular,
we address
gas discrimination and quantification with open sampling systems,
statistical gas distribution modelling
and gas source localization.

Applications

We study gas-sensitive robots as dedicated inspection robots for e.g. support of disaster response or as mobile nodes in sensor networks for surveillance and monitoring. Our contributions relate to all research schemes mentioned above, mainly gas discrimination and quantification with open sampling systems, distribution modelling, gas source localization, sensor planning as well as work on general perception for inspection robots (fusion with vision, 3D and thermal sensing).
Examples are shown in the slide on the right.

The integration of robotic solutions into industrial vehicles depends on the ability to achieve safe autonomous operation in dynamic, shared environments.
Related to this central goal,
we collaborate with numerous industrial partners and strive to integrate our research work timely in industrial demonstrators.
Our relevant research addresses localization, navigation, material handling (mobile manipulation), task and motion planning, obstacle avoidance and human-robot interaction in semi-structured, dynamic environments.
Examples are shown in the slide on the right.

People

The Mobile Robotics and Olfaction Lab is one of two research groups
within the Centre of Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems (AASS).
We are currently 27 highly motivated researchers (15 Ph.D. students, 12 senior researchers)
from 15 different countries.
Further details can be found under the item "People" in the menu on the left side of this page.

Good Use Declaration

Regarding the intended applications that we target,
we feel indebted to the Uppsala Code of Ethics for Scientists.
Our aim is ultimately to free humans from dull and dangerous tasks
(as phrased by Norbert Wiener: "the human use of human beings")
and to understand perceptual, biological and physical processes through the help of robots.
We are aware that our results may have also other, less beneficial, applications
and therefore declare that it is strictly prohibited to use or to develop,
in a direct or indirect way,
any of our scientific contributions
by any army or armed group in the world,
for military purposes and for any other use which is against human rights or the environment.